Her Destiny
by KatLeePT
Summary: She will control her own destiny. Outlaw Queen. Spoilers!


Watching the man she has grown to love laughing and smiling with another woman who wears his name and ring, as she herself should, Regina remembers another dark and lonely time in her life. She thinks back to when she was first beginning to learn serious spells underneath Rumpelstiltskin's tutelage. The hardest task he set before her as his pupil was to take the heart of another living being. She remembers the unicorn well, remembers how noble and majestic the animal was, and how she killed it by first taking and then crumpling its heart.

When she first saw Robin kiss Marian and realized that she was the wife he had believed for so long to be dead, Regina had felt akin to that noble beast, but now she finds herself thinking of that time for an entirely different reason. Rumpelstiltskin had warned her the task would be hard but was necessary if she was to follow the path of dark magic, the path they both believed to be the path of power at the time. She had taken the animal's heart out of the belief that what she was learning would eventually make her able to stop her mother and control her own destiny.

She still feels like destiny isn't hers, but she could make it her own again. She could stop Robin from loving Marian. She could stop Marian from breathing. It would be so easy: Just one more heart to add to her chambers. Rumpelstiltskin was right: Killing had gotten easier with every heart she had taken. She watches them playing with her son and knows well that Robin and Roland could both be hers again.

Her fingers curl. Her dark eyes blaze. But then, she thinks of Henry. She thinks of promises she has made her son and the fact that Robin didn't love her when she was evil. He came to love her of his own free will when she was trying to be good for her son.

Her keen eyes zero in on Marian. It would be so easy. She could take the peasant's life, and no one would ever be the wiser. But that isn't the woman she is any more, she thinks. She isn't that budding Sorceress trying so hard to make her own life and stop her mother. Her mother is gone. Cora doesn't control her life any more, and although it still feels like her destiny isn't her own to choose any longer because of the pain she's been suffering from losing Robin's love, she remembers that it is.

She chooses her own path in life. She can choose to be evil. She can choose to lose the ground on goodness she's gained and risk one day losing Henry because he catches her doing something she's promised him she won't do. She'd never let him find out about Marian, but one dark spell will lead to another. The darkness is power, but it is also a sickness. If she starts back on it, she may not be able to stop again.

Her attention goes back to Robin, and she remembers how she used to make him laugh and smile. She remembers how it felt to be held in his arms and think that finally, finally, she was going to get her happy ending. Villains don't get happy endings, and she's tired of not being happy. Even without him, her True Love, she can be happy. She can be happy with her son, with whom she shares an entirely different kind of True Love.

But she still wants Robin. She misses him. She loves him, and although she's tried to stop, it hasn't done her any good. Her lips set in a thin line of determination as she makes her decision. She _will_ have him, but she won't take his heart. He will not love her simply because she forces him to do so. Oh, no. He will love her and he _will_ give her his heart, but when he does so, it will be out of his own free will.

She looks away as Marian pulls Robin in for another kiss. A low hiss escapes her, but her decision is made. Marian will not keep her man forever. He will come back to her, and just as he gave his heart when he thought Marian was dead and Regina chose him to keep her heart safe for her, he will once more give her his heart.

She is no longer a villain. She will have her happy ending. But for now, it's time for a different kind of happiness. It's time to meet her son for the sundae she promised him. Smiling, Regina begins to head to Granny's. She is a different woman, a much happier and much less desperate woman, and soon, the whole world will see it and see her finally have the happy ending she deserves.

The End


End file.
